Oh, the Smells!

I hadn't really noticed the loss of my sense of smell.

I could still smell the general fresh and foul odors my environment offers. But, in the time since my last* cigarette, I've noticed more smells than before. I'm told the sense of smell returns after quitting, and I'm finding that. Except that...it's not pretty.

I seem to only notice all the foul subtleties. New wisps of aroma in the bathroom; stale, musty, mildewy smells, as well as used products in the trash can. It's difficult to welcome it all back.

Also, returning with a vengeance, are the variety of odors caused by the act of smoking cigarettes itself. Friends and strangers with their clothes and hair reeking from just having come indoors after a smoke break. Ash trays, and their stale malodor, rooms and cars where the no smoking light has been off for some years and their deeply ingrained, stagnant funk. Even my own car smells different. Before, it smelled smoky to varying degrees, depending on how recently I smoked in it, how low the windows were rolled down, etc. But now, it's this stale, stagnant, ancient smell. Smells like permanent damage.

I am sure in due time, this advent into the olfactory realm with provide some pleasure eventually.

But, like just about every other aspect of life when one is trying to quit: it sucks.

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* By last, I hopefully mean last as in final, not last as in previous.